


Scar Tissue

by mcgarrygirl78



Series: Someone Like You [12]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Drama, F/M, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-26
Updated: 2012-07-26
Packaged: 2017-11-10 18:18:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/469245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I should mention that these dudes were the size of the 1985 Chicago Bears.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scar Tissue

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for discussion of physically abusive relationships.

The loud knocking, which was more like banging, startled Gina. She was curled up on her couch relaxing and talking on the phone. She wasn’t expecting company tonight and since this neighborhood could be sketchy who knew what this was about.

“Hold on Aunt Karen, there's someone at the door.”

Gina went over to the door, gasping when she looked out the peephole. She opened the door quickly and helped Anderson in.

“Oh my God, what happened to you?”

“I'm OK.” He held up his hand to stem the possible tide.

“You are so not OK. You're bleeding.”

“I really need to sit down. Actually passing out might be better.”

“No, no, no.” Gina quickly helped him over to the couch. “You're not allowed to pass out on me. You may have a concussion and could slip into a coma.”

“That’s comforting.” Anderson mumbled, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

“Open your eyes!” she snapped. “Just stay awake.”

Gina grabbed her phone, not at all sure what her aunt heard and what she thought.

“Aunt Karen, I have to go.”

“Is everything alright, sweetie?”

“Other than my boyfriend looking like he was jumped into a gang, everything is groovy. I'm OK and I’ll call you back tomorrow. I cross my heart.”

“Alright Gina; I love you.”

“I love you too.”

She hung up her phone and put it on the coffee table. Then she took a good look at Anderson. He looked a hot mess. His left eye was definitely going to be black. There were cuts and scrapes on his face; his lip was bleeding. There was a cut on his forehead, blood there and in his hair. She gingerly examined his hands, glad that he at least got some good hits in on the bastard. Still, there was a chance she might have to take him to the ER.

“What the hell happened?”

Gina tried to stay calm as she went to the kitchen for the first aid kit. She’d come from a family of nurses and cops; males and females on both professions. Gina could do everything from patch up booboos to stitches. There was even the time she did an emergency extraction of a bullet. Her father always said that you never know what kind of situation you could find yourself in. Knowing certain skills could save your life or lives around you. Gina surely never thought her boyfriend would get into a grizzly bear and lose.

“Let me just say that I'm never going to McGee’s again.” Anderson said, grimacing. “And I'm damn sure not going out with Baldwin again. I could’ve been killed tonight.”

“What happened?” she asked, coming back into the living room. She sat on the coffee table and opened her state of the art first aid kit. Gina had three but she called this the zombie apocalypse kit. She handed Anderson a tumbler with brown liquor in it.

“What's this?” he asked looking at her. He wasn’t sure if he should mention that there were two of her. Well really there was one whole Gina and a blurry, holographic Gina. He’d keep that to himself for the time being.

“Its Jameson’s; drink it and don’t complain. Now tell me what happened.”

“The place was packed as usual but I guess I was having a good time. Baldwin was doing that obnoxious ass thing he does to impress women and wow rookies with tales of his days in the field with the great Jason Gideon. It’s such bullshit, I don’t even think he knew Gideon I mean at least he yelled at me a few…ow!”

“Sit still!” she admonished.

“Babe, it hurts.”

“Its not gonna feel like rainbows. Breathe slowly in through your nose and out through your mouth. Just think about me naked.”

“I can't do that if you expect me to speak.” Anderson said. He winced as she used alcohol pads to clean his face.

“OK, think of me dressed as Valeris from _The Undiscovered Country_.”

“Oh hell no.” he shook his head and regretted it.

“Just tell me what happened.” Gina threw the used alcohol pads into a plastic bag.

“The story is simple. Baldwin was being all bing bang badass. Then he hit on the wrong girl; her drunken, dumbass boyfriend got mad. A verbal war ensued. We’d almost managed to calm it down but something set the creep off again. Instead of slugging Baldwin, who may have deserved it, this douchebag slapped his girlfriend hard across the mouth. Baldwin and Cortez jumped him and then his three friends jumped in. I had no choice babe; fair is fair. I should mention that these dudes were the size of the 1985 Chicago Bears. Ow.”

“I'm so sorry.”

“Gina, when he slapped that woman…Jesus Christ. Who can call themselves a man and knock a woman to the ground? I mean imagine if he beat her up like he beat me up. This was a brawl.”

“I don’t blame you for intervening. It might be a good idea not to go back to that place.”

“Yeah.” Anderson nodded. “They called the cops and we pulled out FBI credentials. Luckily the witnesses told the truth; we didn’t start it. They arrested the creep but the woman followed behind saying she would get him out. Gina, how could she…?” Anderson sighed. “How could a woman love a man that battered her?”

“Perhaps the punishment for letting the asshole stew overnight is worse than going to get him out.”

“I don’t even want to think about it.” he shuddered and this time it had nothing to do with physical pain.

Gina cleaned his face, placing a large Band-Aid on his forehead cut. Then she moved on to his hair. It was possible he’d been hit in the head with a bottle. There was some glass in his hair and some cuts. None of them were deep enough for stitches but she made sure they were thoroughly cleaned.

“Take off our shirt please.”

Anderson did it without question. Gina knew he must have felt like crap. A statement like that would never get by without a cheeky response. He just unbuttoned it and put it on the couch beside him. He pulled the Hanes tee shirt over his head too. Sure enough there were body bruises. Gina got more emotional then she intended as she looked at them.

“Hey, hey,” he took her face in his hands. “I'm going to be OK babe. I mean, I could slip into a coma but the chances are quite remote. I'm sure the pain will subside in a couple of days.”

“When you hurt, I hurt.” She held back her tears. “That’s how it is when you care about someone.”

“I just pray to God that you never hurt like this.”

Despite his cut lip, Anderson still kissed her. He kissed her nose and then her mouth. Gina had to suck it up when he rested his forehead on hers. Crying wouldn’t help anything.

“Lean back, I have to make sure nothing’s broken.”

Nodding, Anderson lay back on the couch. There was plenty of wincing as Gina checked everything from his clavicle to his pelvis, but nothing was broken. There was some soreness but he could still breathe. Anderson even managed a smirk when Gina made him sit up again and checked his lungs with a stethoscope.

“Scoff if you must but if your lungs were slowly filling with blood I could hear it with this.”

“I know, but I'm not scoffing.”

“You're scoffing a little.” She said.

“OK, I was scoffing a little.” He smiled but didn’t laugh because that hurt too much.

“Lie back again.”

Anderson laid back and closed his eyes. He prayed that he didn’t have a concussion and didn’t slip into a coma. Reaching his hand out to her, Anderson sighed when Gina slid her fingers between his.

“I'm going to have to check your hands too. The knuckles are probably going to swell. You need to put some ice on them.”

“All I want to do is pass out.” he mumbled.

“When you wake up in the morning you're going to feel like holy hell.”

“I feel pretty shitty at the moment. I should've just stayed home or hung out with you. I don’t even like Baldwin, why did I go out with them?”

“There's no point in doing what ifs and why did I’s. It’s done and now you just need to recover. You may as well stay home tomorrow. It’s Friday so you'll have a chance to rest before jumping back in on Monday.”

“You know I hate missing work.”

“I know but you can't go in looking and feeling like this.” Gina reasoned. “The BAU can function for one day without you.”

“Will you stay home too, and give me a sponge bath?” Anderson asked.

“You wish. I'm up to my neck in files and paperwork. I'm going off the grid tomorrow and jumping straight into the color coded matrix. But I promise this weekend you’ll get my undivided attention. Do you think you'll be OK to see Cactus Flower on Saturday?”

“I don’t know. I want to but I really just want to relax. All those people and all that noise…it might not be the best idea.”

“You're probably right. Oh well, I'm sure they’ll come back to town in the next couple of months. C'mon, I’ll get you up and into bed.” Gina helped him up from the couch. “How did you even make it to my place in this condition?”

“I took a cab. Cortez offered me a ride but since I hate them all I declined.”

She smiled as Anderson leaned on her and they walked back to the bedroom. He had been roughed up but would survive to tell the tale. She hoped he wouldn’t embellish it like Baldwin surely would. He sighed after sitting down on her big bed. Anderson kicked his shoes off, undoing his belt and slacks. While helping him lie back on the propped pillows, Gina pulled them down.

“You can leave them.” He looked down at his grey argyle socks.

“It’s so adorable that you sleep in socks.”

“The blood circulation to my feet is enough so that my toes won't fall off, but they're constantly cold. I do it for you.”

“I’ll warm you all up.” Gina smiled.

“I might not be able to uh…”

“I wasn’t talking about sex, butthead.” She opened the top drawer, grabbed a tee shirt, and threw it at him.

“I knew that.”

“Uh huh.”

“I did.” He said.

“Let’s just say you do now.”

Anderson smiled as she climbed into bed with him. It hurt a little but he didn’t give a damn. He planned to wrap his arms around his girlfriend, held her close, and inhaled the faint scent of CKOne on her skin. It was comforting that he had some place to go. 

It had been forever since he’d actually been in a relationship. By relationship Anderson meant a mutually beneficial partnership of affection, growth, and joy. Gone were the days of chasing girls who pretended to like him so that he could do their homework or pay the bar tab. This was the real deal.

“Gina?” he whispered her name while stroking her dark hair.

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” she kissed his neck, just about the only uninjured part of his upper body. Taking a deep breath and swallowing, Gina said something that she never thought she would again. “When I was a junior in college, my boyfriend was a bad drunk. Sober he was a sweetheart; at least I thought he was in the beginning. When he drank he got angry, belligerent, and turned into a monster.”

“Did he hit you?” Anderson asked.

“The first time it shocked the hell out of me. Nothing like that had ever happened to me. The next day he blamed it on the drinking. I knew how drunk he was so I believed him and forgave him. The problem was that he liked to drink a lot. We were together for 10 months; I covered many bruises during that time.”

“I am so sorry.”

“We all have undesirable parts of our past.” She replied. “I don’t want you to feel sorry for me or think differently about me. I know what happened to me was wrong and I broke up with him. I broke up with him three times before I finally really ended it. He harassed me for a little while until my dad, Uncle, and cousins taught him a lesson.”

“He deserved it for sure.”

“I think my dad is going to like you though.” 

“I think your dad will probably scare the hell out of me.” Anderson said.

“Yeah.” Gina laughed. “Maybe I can call in late tomorrow; sleeping in might be good for the both of us.”

“Anytime I spend with you is good for me.”

She sat up and kissed his lips. When Anderson groaned, Gina tried to move away but he held onto her. He wanted her close; wanted her to feel safe and secure with him.

“Tonight sucked.” He mumbled with his lips still on hers.

“Earlier tonight sucked. Right now is pretty cool.”

Anderson nodded and kissed her again. He’d better take something strong before bed because this was gonna hurt like hell. In Gina’s arms he felt perfect. He’d be back in the real world, the cold cruel real world, soon enough.

***


End file.
